A long weekend

Mrs C and I will be spending this weekend in London with our
daughter L and her family … her partner J and her two little
children, Mini and Little D. We really looking forward to it,
and for me it will be a welcome break from the endless sorting
out of things here (mainly my own clutter), other jobs around
the house, and work for my local U3A.

J has a tiny laptop/ notebook which he takes to work with him,
so I will have no access to the internet for about 12 hours
on a weekday … which is not a bad thing, as I’ll spend more
time with the women and children instead. Being a
computer-addict, I’ll spend an hour or so getting my “fix”
around everyone’s bedtime.

The next few days are going to be cool and wet in London,
though we should see a little sunshine on Friday and Saturday.

An Englishman likes to know these things in advance, so he
can pack a brolly and take suitable attire with him, to match
the weather prospects. “Be Prepared” is the Boy Scouts motto,
which is something I’m fond of saying (jokingly) … though I
was never a boy scout. I never joined the Scouts as I didn’t
like the thought of having to attend church on Sundays, or
going on parades, though I would have liked learning how to
tie knots better, and to have earned some money for local
charities by doing “a bob a job”. Had I been bought up in
a more traditional family, I could well have signed up for
the Scouts (a junior version of officer training) leading
to a career in the Armed Forces or the Police Force perhaps.

As regards the latter, I was inspired as a kid by reading
the Sherlock Holmes stories to become a detective, and as a
teenager, watching the James Bond films, to become a
philandering spy and man of action.

Hmm … missed opportunities there … I blame the totally
inadequate careers advice we had at school,(though to be
honest I never had the intellect to be a top detective, or
the physique and the chat-up lines to be like James Bond).